Bulls look to keep momentum alive in Shreveport

The Amarillo Bulls have built some momentum after taking two-of-three at home against Odessa last weekend and look to keep that rolling.

Amarillo (14-15-4-3, 35 points) visits North American Hockey League South Division leader Shreveport on Friday and Saturday at George’s Pond Hirsch Coliseum for a quick two-game set that could give the Bulls an important four points. Both puck drops are scheduled for 7:11 p.m.

“I thought we played much more like we are supposed to,” Amarillo head coach Rocky Russo said. “We’re playing much more sound defensive hockey, we’re limiting chances and coming a really good job of scoring goals in a timely fashion.”

The Bulls still trail Corpus Christi (17-15-3-5, 42 points) by six points for fourth place and the final playoff spot.

One of the highlights from Amarillo’s big weekend was the play of goalie Jason Grande. Grande stopped 78-of-83 shots in his starts on Thursday and Saturday, delivering a brilliant series finale performance Saturday where he saved 40-of-41 shots in regulation and overtime, as well as stopping all three attempts in the shootout.

“He’s really coming into his own,” Russo said. “As any first year player they have some bumps along the way, but the second half of the year is generally when they tend to take off and Jason’s certainly doing that.”

The Mudbugs (27-6-3-2, 59 points) have had the Bulls number in the first four meeting last month, going 4-0 with one overtime win in two meetings in Amarillo and two in Shreveport before Christmas.

“Shreveport’s a good hockey team and they are coming off a 1-0 loss to Corpus Christi on Saturday so I’m sure they’ll be hungry,” Russo said. “But we’re hungry, too. If you look at the four games we’ve played against them, obviously the one game we got beat pretty soundly 5-0, but the other three games were tied or a one-goal game going into the third period so we know that we have a team that’s more than capable of competing against them.”